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1 BILLION – That’s the number of unique visitors to YouTube every month. If your horizon is just the UK, then I’m afraid that number falls to a mere 20 million! By 2017, video is expected to account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic (according to Cisco). Every indicator on the subject of video points to rapid growth of this type of engaging online content. With people turning to video for their entertainment and information needs, small businesses need to realise that failure to include video in their internet marketing strategies will set them at a disadvantage. If you remain unsure, here are five sound business reasons why you need to consider video content now.

Earlier this year Horizon Imaging was commissioned to produce another promotional video for national construction firm Willmott Dixon who we have worked with on a number of projects in the past. This time we were asked to document a number of extensions and landscape alterations at the Dover Christ Church Academy in Dover, Kent. The video will be used at internal staff meetings to illustrate the variety of work Willmott Dixon undertakes, providing a particularly valuable insight to those members of staff who were not directly involved in the Dover Christ Church Academy project.

At the end of July we were commissioned to film another beautiful Surrey wedding from the air with our drone. This time the wedding ceremony was held at the idyllic St Mary The Virgin Church in Send, Surrey, and the reception at a large private estate in Chiddingfold, Surrey.

Once again, the ability of our drone to fly discreetly above the event as it unfolded below has provided the couple with a unique and lasting perspective of their big day.

A few weeks ago Horizon Imaging received a strange request from a fellow drone aerial photography company who were inspecting the exterior of an old public swimming bath in Brixton, London – could we put our telescopic mast inside the old boiler chimney of the swimming bath to inspect the condition of the brickwork?! As our mast is fully portable and sits in its own 4-legged tripod, the answer was “of course we can”!

Earlier in August we were commissioned by Columbian-based 3D visualisation company MONOMO to take some drone aerial photographs of a business park in Hersham, Surrey which is due to be turned into a Lidl supermarket. Once the images were taken, MONOMO would then super-impose a computer-generated 3D model of the new supermarket onto the aerial photographs to give the public an idea of what the final site would look like. As Hersham is such a built-up area, the most difficult part of this shoot was finding suitable locations to fly the drone, as there are many regulations that govern the use of drones in built-up areas.

Last month we were commissioned to perform a preventative-maintenance roof inspection of a block of flats in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey. Although the client had initially asked us to use our drone for the inspection, they were unaware of the restrictions that govern where drones can and cannot be used. As this flat was in a busy neighbourhood with roads, cars and other blocks of flats on all sides, we suggested using our fully-portable 50-foot telescopic mast instead.

I was browsing a mobile phone review web site recently and noticed that some of the leading brands now ship with a 23 megapixel camera. While only two-thirds the resolution of today’s top DSLR cameras, it is impressive nevertheless. Reading the review of one particular mobile phone, it described the photos as “… pin sharp, brightly coloured, and full of fine details in both the bright spots and shade. The camera can also be launched and a shot taken faster than with any other mobile device.”

So what are the tangible elements that set the professional photographer apart from the keen amateur?

At the end of May we had the privilege of filming a stunning countryside wedding in the breath-taking surroundings of the Surrey Hills near Guildford.

The wedding ceremony itself took place at the idyllic St Martha-on-the-Hill church in Chilworth, Surrey which we actually photographed from the air over 4.5 years ago in December 2011.

We are often asked if we are able to remove certain distracting features from the photographs we have taken. These requests can range from removing contrails from the sky, leaves from a lawn or graffiti from walls, and doing so will often make the difference between a good image and one that really shines and helps to keep the viewer’s attention fixed on the intended subject. Occasionally, we are also asked if we can add features to photographs which weren’t there to begin with, like adding a more attractive sky or digitally ‘seeding’ a new lawn!

And now for something completely different! Today we helped a local video production company take the ‘icing on the cake’ shot for their promotional video of Greville Primary School in Ashtead, Surrey.